Carleton’s Regional Carls Program

The Carleton Business Book Club
welcomes 2011 with a Tale from Silicon Valley 

January 7, 2011, 7:30 to 9 a.m.

Panera on Sherman Street in Evanston

Book for Discussion: The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story,
by Michael Lewis (2000: W. W. Norton & Co.)

Want to take a journey through Silicon Valley at the dawn of the 21st century and meet talented technology developers?  The New New Thing will introduce you to people who not only developed the personal home computer as we know it but turned upside down the financial world that, until then, dominated American business.  Jim Clark, founder of Netscape and Silicon Graphics, burst into the business world with bold, new, never-before-tried business strategies to finance his discoveries.

On the surface, this book seems to be about computers and The Internet.  Under the surface in the business world, however, is where the new new thing happened. Heretofore, wealthy people, who controlled large sums of money, decided whether a new venture was worth financing or not worth financing.  The author shows how engineers and software specialists did something new.  They bypassed the men controlling the money and went directly to small investors, selling high-risk ventures that, surprisingly, paid off big.

Along the way, we’ll see that –

• You can choose to be a down and out misfit on the road to nowhere, or you can choose to show 'em all and make something of your life.

• Having decided to do something, there is no actual limit to how big you can think.

• An individual can actually swing the entire economy and all of its big established companies around to a different agenda and different competitive landscape.

Carleton alums and parents are welcome to invite friends to read the book and join the conversation, Carleton affiliated or not.

Carleton Business Book Club Contact:

Don Rawitsch, Evanston, IL

(If you need assistance, contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 800-729-2586 or alumni-office@carleton.edu)